Sunday, 3 September 2017

This is a really photo heavy post to show each step. At some point I will get organised so I can do videos instead but this is in response to someone new to all this on how to produce these inky tags!!

I used Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Spiced Marmalade to create these inky tags. Distress Oxides are a combination of pigment and dye inks and are fantastic to play with. They are beautiful to stamp with as they have a felt pad, rather than a spongy foamlike pad typical of pigment inks, which give a firm pad to stamp from.

Saturday, 26 August 2017

I've had a busy old week - an article for Lavina Stamps in PaperCraft Essentials, a blog post for PaperArtsy looking at how Distress Oxides react to PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic paints, and today, an online article for Lavinia Stamps which you can read HERE. Whilst you're over there, check out Tracey's new stamp designs, they are absolutely stunning.

Customising stickers like these from Creative Bea are quick and easy to do. They are now made in grey which I think would look amazing with pinks and blues, or yellow ochre and white - so many choices!

The stickers start life with a beautifully simple word.

I covered this with a scrap of envelope (as that's what I had lying around!!), dipped my paintbrush in some Paper Artsy Fresco Acrylic Paint and tapped it against my left hand.

Saturday, 25 February 2017

For me, the more layers I have in my journal page, the more likely I am to have 'eek' moments when I really don't like it. These pages had a number of these and although I'm ok with the end result, they aren't my faves; and that's ok!

I'm challenging myself to art journal every day and from the middle of Jan to the middle of Feb I incorporated Rae Missigman's 30 day art marks challenge. Today I thought I'd share the progress behind a couple of those pages.

I started with a madly coloured page which I toned down using Dina Wakley's heavy body white paint through a Stencilgirl stencil.

I challenged myself to use colours I don't normally use for these pages, and I was also trying out a different process, following one of Rae's videos and trying out different layers ..

...which included different papers added as a layer.

Adding a focal point of my own creation, rather than basing it on a stamped image, was a challenge for me. I chose to tear paper into a shape and at this point the flower was my favourite...

..but once I added colour it was the leaves I was happiest with! More white paint around the images made them 'pop' a bit better from their busy backgrounds.

I'm particularly pleased with how this challenge got me using my own marks, rather than always using rubber stamps. I carved some of these into stamps of my own and I'm loving using them in a variety of ways.

detail from flower page

I love how challenges take me out of my comfort zone and encourage me to try new things. Rae is putting together another challenge for March but it's not too late to join in this one here